Tetsuki doesn’t need to say how important Maya is when her actions have already done so, words have never been how she communicates with Hiei, and it’s mostly a joke when she threatens to shave off the fox’s hair.

—

Tetsuki gets used to poison kisses, everything growing green around her; she’s lightheaded from giddiness as much as the toxins, luxuriating in the sensation.

Or maybe it’s the sound of machinery, oil streaked across her skin; or the view of the stars from outside the atmosphere, breathless but not suffocating.

[[A/N: As previously stated in this post, this is one in a series of Trailblazers cross posts to make up for my abysmal showing for the past few days.

Trailblazers, Bright and Bold, with it’s slightly different title, is in a way the prototype for the Trailblazers I’ve been writing on this tumblr. So not everything in these cross posts would make the final cut of the hypothetical complete Trailblazers fic.

This one is set approximately… eight-nine years in the future? (as in, the actual future, in which everyone is now late teens/early twenties. Hence “Epilogue Arc”). The reason why I’m unsure is because this is supposed to be the one of the last few scenes of Trailblazers since Tetsuki’s literal deadline is approaching soon.

Like the first of these Trailblazers cross posts, this one is about my bewilderingly strong feels for the TetsukixKusakabe ship. Actually… my very first drabble on this tumblr was Tetsuki trying to buy a wedding ring for him. It’s like I’ve come full circle…]]

~

Their wedding is a beautiful one.

Not perfect, no, not at all, but beautiful nonetheless. It’s the first wedding amongst the tenth Vongola generation so it’s somewhat more political than they’d prefer, being obligated to invite allied Family members, but it helps that most of them are friends anyway.

The number of guests, though, means that the Foundation members not out on missions have to function as security–though Tetsuya has been calling them all ushers, even the ones with sniper rifles positioned on the rooftops of adjacent buildings–but they seem happy with it, glad to be there in person rather than wait for the video to be put together. She still can hardly believe how fond of her they are, calling her Ane-san even though she’s younger than most of them.

It’s a western-style wedding, but it’s held in Namimori. For all that they both work for the Italian mafia, they wouldn’t even consider marrying anywhere else. Kyouya-san wouldn’t let them, even if it does mean many of their guests have to travel halfway around the world. Kyouya-san is paying for the wedding after all.

Well, sort of. The caterer and florist are both Namimori-born; when Kyouya-san was mentioned, they offered their services for free. For different reasons: the caterers know who really runs Namimori and would never dare insult him while, apparently, the florists are huge fans of the Hibari manor gardens.

Her dress was made by Haru, of course, and even though she rejected Spanner’s attempts to mechanize it, Tetsuki’s pretty sure there’s still a layer of Flame reactive armor sewn in. Haru’s gotten better at subtlety, though, or perhaps Kyoko intervened because it’s not overly flashy or frilly or have anything overtly odd like wings. She even made a little bow-tie for Yuzuru, which is most likely also made out of Flame reactive metal.

Lambo’s the ring-bearer, even though he claimed he’s too old–but he was easy enough to trick when Kyoko told him how important the ring was in a wedding. How the ring-bearer is more like a ring-guardian. He’s almost electrocuted three guests already, but even in her flower girl dress, I-pin is just as quick as ever to stop him while Kyoko soothes things over with the almost victims.

With all that she’s been doing behind the scenes, Kyoko probably should have been her maid of honor, but she just smiled and said she liked the first choice better. She’s still a bridesmaid, of course, along with Haru and Chrome, but her best friend has always been Ryohei. He’s her man of honor–it’s not traditional, no, but neither of them really care–and he’s walking her down the aisle.

He cried when she asked him to, and she just huffed at him and asked who else did he think she’d consider; honestly Ryohei, even though he’s the Boss, Tsuna’s still so nervous about the strangest things.

If Kyouya-san hated crowds even a little bit less, he would have been Tetsuya’s best man. She knows he’s watching from somewhere, but she hasn’t actually seen him, just Tsuna’s increasingly twitchy eye that means he is around and possibly challenging guests and allies to fights or he and Mukuro are causing possible structural damage to the church.

As it is, Romario-san is the best man, which is fortunate because he’ll be near the center of attention and that means Chiavarone tripping and breaking something won’t be. Although, they’ve been suspiciously scanning the grounds for what she suspects is a missing Enzio. If that turtle ends up interrupting the wedding she won’t be the only one, or even the first one, in line to strangle Chiavarone.

That dubious honor goes to Fuuta and Bianchi. Who are looking over everything in a meticulous and exceedingly crazed manner–they’re the wedding planners, an odd, somewhat worrying, but surprisingly effective partnership which has made even Kyouya-san concede in a few wedding decisions (she and Tetsuya hadn’t even tried).

They’re both wearing tastefully simple silver domino masks, which means Fuuta’s doing so out of solidarity or they have really been hanging around each other for too long and have fused into some sort of hive-mind. It’s not exactly the weirdest thing to happen in their lives.

It’s all beautiful. Ridiculous and mad, of course, and nothing like perfect, but it’s beautiful.

She can’t do this.

~

[[A/N: Obviously, this drabble is incomplete, seeing as how she does end up married to Kusakabe. But whether that means they both ignore the ceremony and elope, or Tetsuki shakes off the last second doubts and follows through… I kind of forget what I had planned. I do remember Gokudera was supposed to talk to her (after Ryohei, the Guardian she is closest to is meant to be Gokudera… though that’s probably because Hibari is resistant to being close to anyone not under his control. It’s ranked as such: Ryohei, Gokudera, Hibari, Chrome, Yamamoto, Mukuro.

It’s a relationship built out of having similar childhoods (despite him being part of the mafia world) and the resulting mix of caustic distrustfulness and low self-esteem. Also, expository dialogue which Tetsuki would ask for in order to better understand the mafia world.

Also, after me, Hibari is the biggest TetsukixKusakabe shipper. As are the entire Disciplinary Committee, even from the beginning 😀 ]]

[[A/N: As previously stated in this post, this is one in a series of Trailblazers cross posts to make up for my abysmal showing for the past few days.

Trailblazers, Bright and Bold, with it’s slightly different title, is sort of the prototype for the Trailblazers I’ve been writing on this tumblr. So not everything in these cross posts would make the final cut of the hypothetical complete Trailblazers fic.

Anyway, enjoy!]]

~

When she goes to the convenience store that Wednesday evening, like she does every other Wednesday evening, Kusakabe-senpai is already there waiting patiently.

It’s not like he has to wait for her to patrol, she doesn’t help much. For all that he says Wednesday nights are the Committee’s busiest except for weekends, usually these evenings are just the two of them strolling around Namimori sharing snacks.

They talk, sometimes, he makes her smile and she likes to think she does the same for him. Not that they’re dates! Of course not, they’re just friends–barely acquaintances, really.

Considering his best friend is Hibari-senpai, and she can’t imagine Hibari-senpai idly chatting as he hunts for troublesome herbivores in his territory, he probably just enjoys the change of pace. He’s just being kind, that’s all.

“Are your parents fighting again?”

He’s just letting her tag along because he think she has nowhere else to go. Or he thinks it’s better to keep a potential miscreant in his line of sight to prevent troublemaking. She’s pretty sure Ryohei’s on a list for known disturbers of the peace and her as well for being his aider and abetter.

“No… I think they’re both in Europe now, actually.”

“You think?”

“Well, I mean. I know my mother’s still in Berlin for a conference, but my father might be in either London or New York. He doesn’t like to stay in one place for too long.”

“Ah…”

She’s flushed. How embarrassing, just throwing out unnecessary information like that.

“Taiyaki?”

Those are her favorite, Kusakabe-senpai is so nice.

“Yes, please.”

The taiyaki shop along their route is supposed to close soon, but they’ve come so often that the owner tends to stay open just a little bit longer when he sees them coming by.

“Are you kidding me? Hibari-san has the social awareness of a hedgehog. No offense to hedgehogs.”

“That is extremely true!”

“How embarrassing, Kusakabe-senpai has probably just been pitying me this entire time.”

“You are overreacting to the extreme! Maybe he extremely likes you back!”

“Don’t shout it to the world, Ryohei!”

~

[[A/N: These two are separate drabbles–one of them is just ambiguous Daily Life and the other is specifically meant to be right before the Kokuyo arc. But seeing as how the second one was very short and just dialogue, and both were similar in their content I decided to cross post them together.

For some reason, as I was developing Trailblazers, I was struck with the unshakeable idea that Tetsuki would be in love with Kusakabe, and though it would be revealed to have been mutual neither of them would have ever made a move until it was too late (given Tetsuki’s penchant for dying before 25). As it is, given all the weird mafia bullshit that is happening to her, she ends up making the first move when the group comes back from the crazy TYL!arc.]]

In the three days counting down before she’s due in the United Kingdom, her friends begin crawling out of the woodwork. They want to speak to her, give her tips, give her more gadgets, get in some last minute sparring. Tsunayoshi-kun earnestly assures her that she doesn’t have to go, but he appreciates her willingness in improving alliance relations. Kyoko ever so politely requests a full-blown medical before she goes, monitoring her health with her newest legion of Vongola medics. The Secchione Sezione (“R&D! Italian isn’t even your native language!”), once they’ve let go of their grudge, ply her with the newest version of contact lenses, armor, and a less bulky container to store Yuzuru.

Even Kyouya-senpai deigns to visit the Vongola mansion and demand a fight before jetting back to Namimori. Truth be told, she would have preferred to see her fiancé one last time instead, but her and Tetsuya’s engagement has always been one of distance and enduring love. She handles her disappointment with grace.

Ryohei, perhaps getting back at all the times she’s teased him about dating Hana, sends Tetsuya several pictures of her pouting. He sends back a short video of him blowing a kiss–or at least he tries to, his pompadour makes selfies difficult–nonetheless it makes her laugh.

The evening before her flight she asks Spanner, regarding the contact lenses, “How strong is the video feed?”

Haru despairs of her insistence on brown lenses (“Why not green, to match your Flames?”), comprehending but not agreeing with why she would cover her pale grey eyes with such a normal color. Shouichi-kun still tends to develop stomach cramps if she hangs around for too long–a remnant from a mission for which he was her handler that neither of them will comment on. So Spanner, apathetic to the core, is the one that gets to field her questions.

“Pretty strong,” He answers noncommittally, before guessing where she’s trying to go with her question, “We have a few relays set up around Europe, so as long as they don’t whisk you away to a different continent we should be able to receive it here. And, as long as you’re powering it with Flames it’ll last you for months.”

The length of the Kingsman trials… provided she gets to the final round, of course.

“We’ll set your feed up on one of the 24-hour monitors,” He continues, his blasé tone contradicting his words.

It’s a huge relief; something she didn’t really know she was worried about until he said it. She’s a little touched, too. Vongola only has three 24-hour monitors, manned constantly by rotating teams of handlers and on-call reinforcements. One of them is devoted solely to Tsunayoshi-kun (which used to get him flustered but, by this point, he’s become desensitized to his lack of privacy). The other two’s usage depends on what missions are out there, the more vital or dangerous ones taking precedence. The Kingsman trials are practically a training exercise with their allies, so she’s a little embarrassed that she had any concerns. Much less concerns so overt that her family are pulling out all the stops to reassure her.

“Thanks,” She says honestly, any doubts and hesitation gone. She’s a guardian of the Vongola Famiglia–and her family has her back.

~

A/N: HOW HAVE I STILL NOT GOTTEN TO THE RIGHT COUNTRY YET, MUCH LESS THE ACTUAL TESTS. OH MY GOD.

This is a direct continuation of this post (which is, in and of itself, a distant sequel to this post).